


All Magic Has A Price

by DaniMeows



Series: ML Christmas ficlets [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Christmas Angst, F/M, Memory Loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 17:26:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16978806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaniMeows/pseuds/DaniMeows
Summary: “Don’t die,” he cried as his own transformation faded away, “don’t leave me here alone…”“There’s a way to save her,” Plagg said.“But it comes with a price,” Tikki said.“Do it. Whatever it costs it doesn’t matter if she’s alive!” he cried.Magic flared and things changed.





	All Magic Has A Price

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry this one was so angsty! I really struggled with this prompt even with some adjustment. I hope you like it! Thanks for the prompt indigopari!

 

It was Christmas Eve, it was raining, and his flight out had been cancelled again.

 

He told Nino and Alya hoping that they had space to let him sleep over since he couldn’t get reservations at any of the hotels in the area.

 

“I know you hate me but it’s Christmas Eve and your flight was cancelled please stay the night,” Marinette said.

 

Her voice was gentle, kind, and shy. It broke his heart.

 

She thought he hated her. She didn’t remember the truth.

 

‘Remember me!’ he wanted to scream, ‘I’m Chat Noir! Remember me!’

 

He stayed away because the pain was nearly too much and the guilt choked him and worst of all she didn’t remember.

 

She remembered Adrien but she didn’t remember Chat Noir.

 

She remembered this moment:

 

_“I love you, Adrien,” Marinette had said. Her voice was soft and shy._

 

_He loved Ladybug. Marinette wasn’t Ladybug. She was just a friend. A beautiful and kind girl who made his heart lighter when he spent time with her… But Marinette wasn’t Ladybug._

 

_“No,” he said. He turned and walked away. He didn’t know what to say he’d talk to her later and explain but he needed to think._

 

_He heard a pained cry but he didn’t turn around. The next day she acted like nothing had happened and he was so grateful that he too acted like the day before hadn’t happened._

 

But not this moment months later:

 

_“I love you, Chat,” Ladybug said. Her voice was soft and shy._

 

_He remembered that her first love had rejected her love when she’d confessed walking away and leaving her crying in the hallway so she was probably scared that he’d do the same. He’d never. How could he ever reject his Lady?_

 

_“I love you too, Bugaboo,” he said._

 

Soon they were dating and Adrien’s heart had never been lighter. Maybe he should have remembered that he had the worst luck and that when he was happy the universe never let him keep it for long.

 

_Hawkmoth was his father. His father had terrorized Paris. His father had made the akumas that had nearly killed him more than once. His father was a monster._

 

_The realization staggered him as Ladybug tried to get away from Gabriel with the miraculous she’d ripped off of him._

 

_It delayed him by just a second but it was long enough for his father to hit her with a heavy bookend. It hit her head with a sickening crack._

 

_He knocked his father out and rushed to her side just as her transformation gave out and Marinette’s unconscious form was lying on the ground motionless with blood dripping from her head._

 

_She was dying._

 

_Marinette who’s love he’d rejected only to accept it as Chat Noir was dying. The kind girl that had been his friend until he’d rejected her love with one word and no kindness had been his Lady all along._

 

_“Don’t die,” he cried as his own transformation faded away, “don’t leave me here alone…”_

 

_“There’s a way to save her,” Plagg said._

 

_“But it comes with a price,” Tikki said._

 

_“Do it. Whatever it costs it doesn’t matter if she’s alive!” he cried._

 

_Magic flared and things changed._

 

The cost was Ladybug.

 

Ladybug had still existed everything had still happened but Marinette didn’t know who she’d been.

 

Marinette didn’t know him. She remembered Adrien breaking her heart but she didn’t remember Chat. She didn’t remember him. She didn’t remember patrols that turned into makeout sessions in interesting locations, candle lit dinners on rooftops…She didn’t remember their love.

 

He couldn’t show her. If he approached her as Chat Noir. If her memories came back in any other way than her remembering on her own… Marinette would die.

 

Adrien avoided seeing her most of the time because it hurt him too much to be around her when she couldn’t remember him. It had been five years. Would she ever remember him?

 

“I don’t hate you,” he said in a near whisper.

 

‘I love you,’ his heart screamed, ‘I love you more than anyone! And if I hadn’t been an idiot and I’d pieced together who sat behind me in school all those years, you’d know that. Or if I hadn’t been such an asshole and had turned you down gently we’d at least be friends still! Instead things are so awkward between us that I have to stay away Princess.’

 

“Oh,” she said.  

 

The walk upstairs was over and she pointed him to the guest room and left his presence. He heard her audible sigh of relief in the room next door.

 

Plagg nuzzled against him in an attempt at comfort and he let his mind play in a world where he’d turned her down gently, as he fell asleep. Where they’d still been friends.

 

In that world, she didn’t remember Ladybug even though she acted like that part of herself all the time and she didn’t remember Chat. But they were friends and they became better friends. He knew Marinette and he fell deeper in love with her and finally they were dating and happy. When her memories were restored the Princess and her Chat lived happily ever after.

 

In this world however life hated him. There was only loneliness, doubt, and guilt. A world where sometimes he got to hear her laughter from far away only for it to fade away if she noticed him present.

 

If only he’d rejected her kindly. If only he’d not been so shocked by his father being Hawkmoth that he’d been to slow to keep her safe. If only he’d been injured instead.

 

Christmas Morning was rainy and miserable and breakfast was awkward.

 

They exhausted polite conversation quickly. They were both in University classes but she was going for a fashion designer degree and he was going for a physics degree. They both knew the latest about their friends.  So once classes were discussed and the weather they had nothing they could talk about.

 

Adrien wanted to leave but his replacement flight wasn’t until late tonight.

 

That’s when it happened…

 

Magic flared around them everywhere and Marinette was suddenly Ladybug and he was Chat Noir without saying the words.

 

Marinette, his Lady,  pulled him in for a kiss. Then they were detransforming but the earrings were back on her ears and her kwami was being cuddled by Plagg.

 

“Guess you don’t hate me after all,” she said before blushing.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: For the Winter prompt list, could you please do “i know we hate each other but it’s christmas eve and your flight was cancelled please come inside” for post-reveal aged-up adrinette miraculous ladybug. Thanks!
> 
> Want a Christmas Ficlet? Leave a prompt from [this list ](http://petalsandtime.tumblr.com/post/181046450241/mindfulmagics-miraculousbuebird) or a different Christmas themed prompt in my tumblr ask box. ^_^


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